August 31, 2023 by matray

AM Best  upgraded the Financial Strength Rating (FSR) to A (Excellent) from A- (Excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating (Long-Term ICR) to “a” (Excellent) from “a-” (Excellent) of Hospitals Insurance Company, Inc. (HIC). Concurrently, AM Best has affirmed the FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICR of “a+” (Excellent) of the members of Doctors Company Insurance Group. The outlook of these Credit Ratings is stable. (See below for a list of TDC’s companies.)

The ratings reflect HIC’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, limited business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management (ERM).

The ratings upgrade for HIC reflects the implicit support from its parent organization, TDC. HIC has been fully integrated into the group’s operations and is viewed as one of TDC’s four strategic business units. The company is critical to the group’s strategy and is a material contributor to the group’s premiums and earnings. Furthermore, the parent has indicated its willingness to provide explicit support if needed.

The ratings of TDC reflect the group’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strongest, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate ERM. TDC’s balance sheet strength continues to be supported by the strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalization, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR). In addition, the group benefits from consistently favorable loss reserve development and a solid liquidity position. The group’s underwriting performance has shown improvement in recent years, with rate actions taken amid hardening market conditions within the medical professional liability (MPL) insurance segment. TDC maintains a strong market position as the second largest MPL writer in the United States, based on 2022 direct premiums written. Further, an appropriate ERM program is in place with a well-defined framework and risk management capabilities that are closely aligned with the group’s risk profile.

The FSR of A (Excellent) and the Long-Term ICRs of “a+” (Excellent) have been affirmed for the following members of the Doctors Company Insurance Group:

• The Doctors Company, An Interinsurance Exchange


• TDC National Assurance Company


• TDC Specialty Insurance Company


• TDC Special Risks Insurance Company


• The Doctors Company Risk Retention Group, a Reciprocal Exchange

August 22, 2023 by matray

NOW Insurance, a full-stack, AI-enabled commercial insurance platform specializing in medical professional liability coverage, announced today an investment from a subsidiary of Arch Capital Group Ltd. and a managing general agent partnership with Arch Insurance North America.

Proceeds from the latest capital raise will be used for launching its new suite of medical malpractice products, scaling their platform, and expanding distribution networks. Chief among these is the introduction of a new portal for brokers. Brokers will soon be able to submit and bind medical malpractice coverage online for physicians.

“I am very excited to further strengthen our partnership with Arch. As an innovative company and leader in the Insurtech space, they understand the potential of our platform and have shown their commitment in helping it succeed,” said Philip Cabaud, CEO of NOW Insurance.

“NOW Insurance’s innovative approach to the medical malpractice market aligns with Arch’s commitment to using analytics and AI to deliver an exceptional broker experience,” said Jay Rajendra, chief strategy and innovation officer for Arch Capital Group Ltd. “We’re looking forward to bringing NOW’s platform to our broker partners and working closely with NOW to further develop their analytics capabilities.”

August 11, 2023 by matray

Integris Group recently announced that the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) has awarded the company’s Continuing Medical Education (CME) program with accreditation through July 31, 2027.

The decision came after a rigorous application process, which spanned nearly two years, from the preparation of the submission documentation, to an interview with ACCME officials, to the final result, according to Integris.

“Congratulations to Integris and the risk management team for receiving this important and valuable accreditation,” said Victoria Reyes, MD, Integris Board Member and Chair of the Risk Management Committee. “This was no small feat and will be a valuable benefit to our policyholders.”

The accreditation by the ACCME was timely, given a new reporting requirement recently released by the American Board of Surgery (ABS). Going forward, ABS-certified providers can no longer self-report the 150 hours of Maintenance of Certificate (MOC) eligible CME courses needed to maintain their license. Instead, the MOC credits must be reported through an ACCME accredited provider.

Now nationally accredited through the ACCME, Integris Group has added this reporting capability to the services and benefits they offer their policyholders.

“At Integris, we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional educational content to our membership,” said Denise Condron, Integris vice president of risk management. “The national accreditation by the ACCME demonstrates this commitment and also enables us to enhance the service we provide our members by allowing us to report these courses on their behalf to the ABS.”

August 10, 2023 by matray

Below are some headlines and article synopses from the August 2023 issue of Medical Liability Monitor. To read the articles in entirety, please subscribe today.

Florida Supreme Court Changes Appellate Rules So Challenges to Expert Witness Qualifications Can Be Immediately Appealed
The Florida Supreme Court last month amended the state’s rules of appellate procedure “to provide for interlocutory review of nonfinal orders that deny a motion dismiss on the basis of the qualifications of a corroborating witness.” Prior to the rule change, medical malpractice defendants had to wait until the conclusion of their trial before appealing any denied motions to dismiss based on the qualifications of the plaintiff’s expert witness. Since the July 6 rule change, hospitals and healthcare providers can immediately appeal an order denying a motion to dismiss based on grounds that the plaintiff’s medical expert witness isn’t adequately qualified to testify against the defendant …

Share of Physicians Working in Private Practice Dropped by 13 points During Past Decade
A new Policy Research Perspective from the American Medical Association (AMA) indicates the share of physicians working in a practice wholly owned by physicians dropped by 13 percentage points during the past decade — from 61.4% in 2012 to 46.7% in 2022. In contrast, the share of physicians directly employed by — or contracted directly with — a hospital during that period increased from 5.6% to 9.6%, and the number working in a hospital-owned practice jumped from 23.4% to 31.3% …

New Report Estimates Diagnostic Error Contributes to 795,000 Permanent Disabilities, Deaths Across Care Settings Annually
The U.S. National Academy of Medicine first declared the improvement of diagnosis in healthcare “a moral, professional and public health imperative” in 2015. However, current estimates of the full scope of harms related to medical misdiagnosis still vary widely. Using novel methods, a team from the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute Center for Diagnostic Excellence and partners from the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions recently published what they believe to be the first rigorous national estimate of permanent disability and death resulting from diagnostic error …

MMIC Responds to One-Sided Accusations of Bad Faith in Iowa Capital Dispatch Article
The nonprofit news organization Iowa Capital Dispatch last month published an article outlining allegations that MMIC Insurance Inc. engineered a record-setting $97.4 million jury verdict against one of its insured clinics last year in an attempt to persuade Iowa lawmakers to pass the noneconomic damage cap legislation that Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law on February 16 of this year. The article makes no attempt to verify the allegations or explore counterarguments independently. It does not include any real overview of the underlying medical liability case or historical context for the noneconomic damage cap legislation and lacks any input from legal experts, healthcare professionals or relevant authorities who could provide insight into the legal filings. Medical Liability Monitor contacted MMIC for comment. Following is its written response to the allegations outlined in the Iowa Capital Dispatch article …

Why Doctors Aren’t Prepared for Medicine’s AI Transformation
As artificial intelligence systems like ChatGPT increasingly find their way into everyday use, physicians will similarly begin incorporating these tools into their clinical decision making, diagnoses and treatment of common medical conditions. These tools, called clinical decision support (CDS) algorithms, can be enormously helpful in guiding healthcare providers in determining, for example, which antibiotics to prescribe or whether to recommend a risky heart surgery. The success of these new technologies, however, depends largely on how physicians interpret and act upon a tool’s risk predictions — and that requires a unique set of skills that many are currently lacking ...

Report Recommends Policy Steps to Slow Private Equity’s Role in Medicine
A new report, Monetizing Medicine: Private Equity and Competition in Physician Practice Markets, examines private equity’s voracious acquisition of physician practices during the last several years. The analysis evaluates market penetration across 10 physician practice specialties, the impact on market shares and concentration, and on prices and expenditures. The authors ultimately frame policy steps that would strengthen FTC competition enforcement …

Malpractice Lawsuits Over Denied Abortion Care May Be on the Horizon
A year after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, many physicians and hospitals in the states that have restricted abortion are reportedly refusing to end the pregnancies of women facing health-threatening complications out of fear they might face criminal prosecution or loss of their medical license. Some experts predict those providers could soon face a new legal threat: medical malpractice lawsuits alleging they harmed patients by failing to provide timely, necessary abortion care …

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